Wait, no tomatoes? So it's just meat and spices in a pot? How does it get from solid meat form to -- I hate to say "liquid" -- you know, the less-solid texture of chili if there are no tomatoes?

Beer. It's meat, spices, and beer.

And I have so many strong opinions about barbecue I'm thinking of investing in a smoker because no one makes barbecue I like out here (and if you want something done right, learn to do it yourself).

I grew up with Betty Crocker chili too. Gotta have beans in it.

I am coming to the conclusion that however much coffee I drank yesterday is too much.

The all-meat chili sounds like what I put in burritos. And it's delicious! But my mental image of chili is Grandma Maisie's Depression Era, descendent of German immigrants chili, minus the rice. In fact, I think I'll make some today. [link]

I was just talking to one of my nurse friends about this and she said that food poisoning symptoms can occur up to weeks after eating the contaminated food so it's really difficult to pin down what specific food may have caused a bout.

That is so crazy to me!

I met with someone yesterday who pronounced meta like "meet-a," and he said meta a lot. It was very strange.

One of the things that I retained from some history class or other was that whatever period we were looking at (18th or 19th century Europe, probably) was marked by a transition from people belonging to a community determined mostly by geography and class towards people belonging to societies determined by shared interests and/or goals that might cut across class and span greater geographical areas, and that seems to be even more true today.

So interesting. And dovetails with the differences between society (as you've listed, but also with the idea that society has sort of contractual roles -- you can to a limited extent decide what roles you want to fulfill) and community which is more about what roles you were born into and all of the baggage and bonuses attached to that. Conflict seems to occur when people want community in a place where society is more important and vice versa.

Beer. It's meat, spices, and beer.

That is...not a type of chili I've ever had. Interesting.

In a sad coincidence, my husband is home sick with what he thinks is food poisoning.

Oh, good point about conflict, Kat. I hadn't thought about it quite like that. I tend to get irritated with people calling for community-building when what I think is needed is more societal attitudes, the other way around is something I should definitely think about.

Oh, hey, I could thaw out some meat today and make chili tonight! Nice. It'll have to be beanless, though, unless I go shopping. The chili I grew up with was made with pink beans or maybe pinto beans, dried not canned. I wouldn't care if someone served me chili made with canned beans, but it would feel weird to make that myself.

Garnishes, specifically sour cream although I am curious about cheese, onions, etc. also: stirred in for a homogeneous bowl or spooned up together but distinct?

Now that I have slept badly after drinking too much coffee yesterday, I will of course need more coffee to get through today. The caffeine monkey is mean and bitter.